2016 was supposed to be a bit more concise. I wanted to focus on the smaller picture. Work on the list of little things I wanted to do better and hold the big picture stuff back to 2018. Last July we purchased the building next to us from our friend Marvin and knew what we wanted to do with it; we just didn't know when we would begin.

A photo of Marvin Nagel, previous owner, from his high school yearbook. I'm going to incorporate this somewhere :)

Since the beginning of eMbers VENUE, the entire team always talked about creating. It didn't matter what we were talking about; construction, design, community, music, mixed drinks, festivals, etc., we just want to create. It was only a matter of time when we felt the urge to evolve and create again.

Creating allows many things to happen:

Community Spirit: We love this community; we love the people, the potential, and the new ideas that are coming together and forming. Our downtown will evolve, it simply has to. We are working extremely hard to create an outdoor design that will make our community friends proud to drive/walk/bike past or walk into. The corner lot leads people into downtown and that makes it very important to us to make you all happy with the space. This outdoor space will completed soon and will be done before the plans for the downtown enrichment grant (new sidewalks and streetlights) is presented to the city. We want it to have a seamless design that compliments what the city has in store for downtown in 2018.

Creativity: I'll confess, this project is driving me a bit mad. I have enough sketches and ideas to create 40 more businesses. Money, time, and energy always seems to be in short supply so without creativity, I'd be in trouble! I'm always a firm believer that creativity is contagious. I feed off others' creativity as I hope others will feed off ours.

Discovery: I don't like visiting places that are predictable. I want to make a discovery. This will be a discovery for guests and locals alike when they visit downtown.

Collaborations: We love to work with others. The beer world is full of this. This makes me happy. So many opportunities to work with local farmers with foods and ingredients. There are so many ways to incorporate "cause" based adventures. People helping people helping people...

Beer: Seriously, beer. Not just any beer, but a beer you can drink while standing or sitting ten feet away from the beautiful stainless steel and copper sculptures that created what you are sipping. That's magical.

With this adventure, the team grows. It is so important for us to surround ourselves with passionate, creative, innovative, quirky, and adventurous souls. We have them here and love them dearly. Soon we will introduce you to the newest.

I've already been asked many questions; some I can answer, some not yet.

The name? - eMbers STATION is being created from a long standing service station owned by our business neighbor and friend Marvin Nagel. On July 7th, 1949; a building twice as large as our venue caught fire, was destroyed and nearly took our venue down with it. After the debris was leveled and cleared, Jack's Uptown Service was built (1952?). Upon Marvin's retirement, we purchased the building and lot on July 7th, 2015. eMbers STATION, in my opinion, is the only name we could have given it. I grew up in my father's collision center. I'm excited to bring this world together again with our vision.

A photo after the fire that destroyed Wright's Furniture where the STATION now stands. We have charred markings from that fire upstairs in our loft above the VENUE.

the construction? - Ya, we are making a mess right now. The timing was a little off with winter quickly approaching but at the same time, Ryan x 2 and I did a large part of VENUE construction with two chicken hatch lights, a space heater (thanks a lot Janelle), and a lot of layers of clothing. We are immune. We have our favorite locals helping us out. Alan Valade on electric, Kevin Kaufman with construction, Fred at Kems for lumber, DK and Sons for masonry, Scott with heating and cooling, Heartland with the plumbing, Kentland Bank with financing (kiss kiss), windows from DeMotte Glass, and the McElfreshes with concrete. Many of them started the eMbers adventure with us and are both tolerant and open to when I say "Hey! I woke up this morning with an idea so why don't we do this instead?" That's very important around here. If you see us freezing outside this winter, I like coffee with .5 oz cream and two sugarcubes...

what about the VENUE? - The VENUE will always be the VENUE. We love the weddings, open houses, class reunions, surprise parties, corporate events, holiday events, and everything else that allowed us the opportunity to meet so many community friends. Our passion is hospitality and trying to make people feel special on special occasions. The design of this expansion is for both sides to compliment each other. Guests who visit the STATION will have more opportunities to be part of the VENUE and the guests who are invited to events at the VENUE will naturally have the opportunity to utilize our daily STATION space.

what about the mural? - The mural had to precede construction. it was quite an effort our friend with the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, Tetia Lee, made to help make this happen. With local support from the Jasper County Tourism Commission and Prairie Arts Council all under the National Endowment for the Arts, it was made possible for San Francisco artist Cameron Moberg to come to Rensselaer and create this beautiful mural. We worked closely with him to ensure he knew the plans and positioning of everything we were going to do. Somehow, he was ahead of schedule and added more to the artwork as "extra credit". This component will be slightly shielded but will not take away from his work. He may have left a surprise for you all inside the main service station room as well...

when will I be able to taste the beers? - It is a process. The true process began early this year. Everything started with blueprints, approvals, applications, submissions, and so forth. The proper way to start the process begins with federal approval and working the way down to state and local. Federal always takes the longest then it gets quicker. I remember listening to my friends at Carpenter Creek Cellars talk about their process. It is true. Must. Have. Patience....

We are shooting for April to be our soft opening. With the VENUE, it was fast and furious once construction was complete; we learned a lot about a bar in a hurry. With the added food component to the expansion and the new way alcohol will be presented, we want to start things right and efficient. A longer soft opening will help that and then we anticipate being open to the public in May. So much to do yet but that is our goal!

what kind of food? - It will be a unique form of cooking to the area that stays true to the eMbers name and a few more surprises.

hours of operation? - (shoulder shrug)

Architect renderings (ARKOR) from early 2016...

Cold and rainy. Keep pushing...

This expansion is a big step for us. It is only made possible because of the community's love and support. Endless thanks for giving us this opportunity to continue to share our vision with all of you. Small business, as many of you know, is tiring. Anxiety, fear, joy, excitement, and pain all get smashed together like a rubber bounce ball and chucked at a wall in a small room. Whenever my crazy mood swings hit, like clockwork, one of you is there for me to offer encouragement; I cannot explain how grateful I am for that. Rensselaer has taken my family in as one of your own and I want to make you proud for that. Thank you for giving me the faith and confidence that we can succeed in this city and do our part in making this great community even better.

r

PS - We have a wicked cool concert December 3rd. Would love to see you :) Check it out HERE

Swimming in Jell-O is the best way to describe the baby steps we make when starting a new project. Our budgets require us to be careful as we articulate each component of creating. Needless to say, we spend a lot of odd hours doing "grunt" work.

My favorite part about this time (of prepping before creating) is visualizing and planning out the finished products; very rarely will the final sketch be the final product.

When thinking about the finished product, the most important component is the "feel" our guests will have; more specifically, how it will evoke emotion. My personal goal is always for those emotions to be unique to the individual. This makes it difficult to clearly categorize and label the spaces when people ask me specific questions about it. The venue side was its own unique challenge because we wanted to bridge historical with modern. This side of the property will be a unique challenge as I want to encompass more "feels".

New doorway as a connector to the spaces

First, I want to make sure it has the existing garage feel. Immediately, what I love about the space, is how it reminds me of growing up in my father's auto body shop. That alone excites me to re-imagine and recreate this space as an addition to eMbers.

I think about other "feels" that I want to tie into it. I imagine what a small club in the late 1970's NYC would have been like. I think about the wine bar in Amsterdam where I first started sketching eMbers. I remember the calm of an indoor/outdoor bistro in LA. There are a lot of "feels" that are personal to me; the importance is tying it together to a personal connection with our friends in the community.

The mural is a great example of what we try to represent. "What kind of bird is that?" is a common question. It can't be labeled because it is purely from the imagination of the artist Cameron Moberg. Something like this forces someone to think creatively when viewing it and not being able to store it in a compartment of the mind. This is what we love to represent.

Separate elements will loosely tie into others is a subjective way. It will always be more fun for you to share with me what our place is than for me to tell you what you are supposed to feel.

Early rendering of one of the designs the expansion will look like. Landscaping and more to be included...

Four and a half years ago we bought a building with a concept. No business plan, no local data, and a fairly limited pulse of the community. Ultimately the concept became eMbers and the business plan was created with numbers so imaginary it should have been written with pixie dust. Without any existing data for something like this (locally), everything was a moderately educated guess.

Part of the fun in creating eMbers was because of this too. We didn’t want to create a cookie cutter reception venue. We wanted to take our years of special events experience and create something unique for the type of bride who wanted their experience more creative and personalized.

Four and a half years later, here we go again. This time, however, we are thankful that we have actual data from our experience to factor into the plan.

When we started eMbers, we had friends in the community but we didn’t necessarily know the community. This project is being created ahead of our original timeline because now we do and it makes us more excited to share our ideas with everyone.

We will share bits and pieces about the expansion as it gets created. Everything will be focused with it being a stand alone operation but will also benefit brides and other hosts of private events on the venue side.

This summer’s focus was to get the outdoor mural and blueprints complete. Now that both are complete, everything else has fallen into place for us to create another new experience new to this area and we are excited to proceed.

We have a 47 page business plan for the expansion project and below is an excerpt in the purpose section (blacked out are spoilers not yet to share)...

Points of purpose:

Create financial gains for all invested parties

Create a unique experience for guests

Create job opportunities for the community

Elevate the expectations of the community in hospitality services

Inspire the community to be more creative

Support local organizations with their mission statements

Inspire local entrepreneurs to pursue their visions

Further inject art into the culture of Rensselaer

Provide entertainment opportunities for local citizens

Enhance the downtown culture of Rensselaer

Create a new legacy for the building structure

Boost tourism into downtown Rensselaer

Enhance the “hometown pride” of residents in the area.

We want this to be a community focused entity. Being such a visible “entry” to downtown, we needed to ensure the visual appeal while tying in the historical feel for what the space once represented. Our architects did a wonderful job of doing this with us.

This will be the section of the eMbers website that will share details with you and ultimately, we will decide if there will be a separate website or if the expansion will share the venue site.